Each year, union officials say uninformed police officers bid to patrol and work in certain parts of the city. The bid numbers came out Tuesday, and the union said 386 officers will be on the streets. There were 431 this past year.

“This is the lowest that we have been in decades,” said Stephanie Lopez, president of the Albuquerque Police Officer’s Association. “It's just sad to see the amount of officers we have leaving.”

Lopez said the men and women who are on the force want to service and protect the public, but there just won’t be enough officers to go around.

“It's a lot busier on graveyard, you have a lot less officers and on dayshift you're pretty scarce with officers now too,” she said.

When a more serious emergency comes in, she said the less pressing calls for service will have to wait.

“When you have bad motor vehicle accident, an extreme domestic violence where an arrest has to be made, that's going to tie up an officer for one to two hours,” said Lopez.

She said calls for service are already prioritized.

For example, if a resident were to walk into their home to find it’s been burglarized, but no one is hurt and the burglar is gone, it might take an officer longer than usual to respond. But if you get into a car wreck and you’re trapped inside, police will be there in seconds.

Union officials said reasons for leaving the force vary: Early retirements, getting fired and resignations. The force is losing officers at a much faster rate than usual, though, according to the association. APD could not be reached for comment.